Steve Ballmer: Windows Phone sales up 300 percent

We're still not sure just how many Windows Phone 8 devices both Nokia and HTC have sold thus far, but Steve Ballmer has informed shareholders in a meeting on Wednesday that Windows Phone handsets in the month since launch were 300 percent higher than the same period last year - we have growth.

Should what the executive revealed in the meeting be accurate, Windows Phone sales are increasing with the launch of new hardware. But until we see official numbers it'll remain speculation as to just how much the platform has grown by. Unfortunately, Ballmer failed to announce how many devices have been sold.

Ballmer said the following to shareholders in the meeting on Wednesday:

"Focusing on devices and services will impact how we run the company, how we develop new experiences and how we take products to market for both consumers and businesses. The work we have accomplished in the past year and the road map in front of us brings this to life."

The previous year we saw Nokia launch its Lumia line of Windows Phones, while HTC released the TITAN and Radar handsets. Sales weren't particularly fantastic, but if a 300 percent increase is indeed the case we could well be seeing a massive jump in consumer conversion to the Windows Phone platform.

Carriers and retailers across the globe have reported unexpected demand for the Lumia 920 and how the Windows Phone has surpassed all expectations - at one point it was almost impossible to locate one for purchase.

Microsoft has released its own tablet running Windows RT, which has been met with a positive reception from consumers. We have also previously looked at Microsoft developing a Surface Phone, but this has yet to turn into reality. What Microsoft has planned for 2013 is nothing short of exciting for those who own a PC, Windows Phone or Xbox console.

Reader comments

Steve Ballmer: Windows Phone sales up 300 percent

For the first time, I didn't have to explain Windows Phone to a group of people when sitting around discussing getting new phones. It seems to be gaining market awareness if not market share. The lady cutting my hair called all Windows Phones Lumias, kind of like Droid became the de facto name for any Android handset because of Verizon's ad campaigns.
My 920 gets here Monday. Wife has had hers four days. The instant gratification geek in me is going mad.

Since 2008 I have traveled weekly though major US airports. In the wild I have seen ONE Windows Phone, the only Lumia 900 I have ever seen in person (I see more iPhone/iPads than countable). Of my 100 or so coworkers, one other has a Windows Phone (he plans to upgrade to WP8). Of 300 FB friends, one has liked WP and I have seen two others post with Windows Phone (I guerilla market for Windows Phone by wishing every happy birthday and happy anniversary though the People hub to get the posted "via Windows Phone" tag line - yep I really like my WP). I imagine the percentage of upgrades from WP7/7.5 phones to WP8 phones is higher than those abandoning Android/Apple or feature phones. Looking foward to 4thQ sales, and hoping for traction and real growth.

300% is a relative value and therefore meaningless without something to compare it with. No reason to get excited - yet. If we take the 600,000 units of Lumia 900 as an approximate base value, 300% is not that much. And its 300% for all devices, not just one.

There have only probably been about a thousand units shipped in australia. No availability. Apparently on release day stores got 10 phoness each. That number would be much higher if there was reasonable availability. At the very least sales will stay strong for a few months.Not to mention the world wide rll out is stuill underway. the 8x still hasn't been released here.

WP8 has not been released in other countries yet so the 300% probably accounts for U.S. and Canada, part of Europe, Australia and New Zealand only. WP8 has yet to be released in the rest of Europe, South America, Africa, most of Asia particularly the big markets of China and India. It seems like it's looking good for WP8 so far.

Yup I believe windows phone will be a big sell out and predict it sold over 8 million counting the other countries. Blackberry for sure has been buried in the grave hahaahha also glad no more Symbian which will be next buried

I don't remember the source but i read somwhere that in q4 2011 WP sales were about 3 million, so that would make 9 milion for this year. Given the broader availability and more models from nokia these rumours for 2.5 million 920's sold are becoming more and more credible! Woohoo

I bought a 920. The WP8 release is essentially brand new. Last year 7.5 was a patch for a year old platform. It's not trolling, it's just the truth. 300% isn't bad, but it lacks enough context to call it good.

Year-to-year comparisons are typically standard. In this case, it just so happens that last year we were well into WP7 (and 7.5), and interest may have plateaued. But, a three fold increase in interest is still a good thing. It would certainly be interesting to see how the first month of WP8 compared to the first months of WP7 and WP7.5.

Windows phone is certainly more popular in India and European countries like Italy and France than in the USA so the 300% increase is possible. I have to say I really look forward to what Microsoft and Nokia will bring us in 2013.

What we sort-of know is that pre-Apollo, WP was around 3.5% of the marketshare. 300% includes upgrades, so it isn't going to go up to 14% (what 400% would be), but it would be reasonable to say that WP now sits in the 8-10% range, which is a decent launch.

I would not be ready to call MOST upgrades. Many users who got the Lumia 900 that helped up the market share of WP7 cannot upgrade yet, while you could counter that many who bought into Android right before WP7 released have been waiting to convert. Personally, I chose a free Android device with unlimited data on Verizon over a limited-data, $200 Focus on AT&T in 3010. I have spent the past 6+ months waiting for my Lumia 920 (went back to AT&T), so WP8 brought me in, as well as my sister.

this is probably an understatement because everywhere that I am looking for a HTC 8x and the lumia 810, i can't find one. at least the T-mobile one. Best buy, wirefly, target, walmart and tmobile are shipping when available. I refuse to buy it until it is and i have no doubt there are planty out there doing the same.

Not necessarily. Google openly talks about how many new activations they have everyday. Microsoft should be able to produce these numbers, and I bet they would if the numbers met or exceeded their expectations.

Not true. Like all companies MS gives you number if they are good or impresive. We got a "number" on the Xboxes that sold in the US over Black Friday because it was an impressive number for a 7 year old console. Consequently Sony never gives out PS3 sales number in the US because they don't sell the most here.

With Android and iOS doing close to 500k activations daily (Is that the right number?) Reveling the actual number for WP will just give haters fodder for writing even more blog posts about how WP is toast. And the only way that won't happen is if the number meets or exceeds Android/iOS, but how could it at this point? Their lead is too big...

I couldn't find anything that elaborated on the nature of the activations, so it could very well include re-activations. Either way, even assuming half of them are re-activations, 250K new activations a day is very impressive.

Well according to what I've read there are alot of people who have yet to buy there first smartphone 500,000 is alot of people a day that would be the worlds pop so it makes me feel safe to assume that its alot of activations of the same phones or the same accounts on new phones assuming that I would think its logical since google releases like a zillion phones a week

well that count is going to be a -1. I have replaced two 8x's because of screen being slightly detached from the body. Dont even let me get started on the loose camera lens, the huge hump in the polycarbonate by the volume rocker, the cracking sound when screezed on the side (only the lower portion where the screen is detaching), the poor battery life, random reboots (even though its gonna be fixed and probably not htcs fault), all of this combined has tarnished by experiece with windows phone 8. i had my very first windows phone in march 2011 with the HD7 and that phone was built better, and ran smoother, especially after the windows phone 7 updates. Anyone who has an 8x plz look at those very same things i mentioned to see if yours was overlooked.

None of this has anything to do with the WP8 OS. Your experience is with the HTC 8X. Although I'll admit that the hardware experience tarnishes the WP8 experience. That's why I think MS is dabbling on the Surface phone.

This is probably the fact that the factory in China is overworked and not meeting quality standards. Nokia had to close up shop in some places. So less factories working faster, longer, and harder to keep up with demand. Going to have a lot of defects.

300% is definately a nice number to hear. However, I still remain skeptical since it's only the first month. I'm sure part of those who make up that increase were people who wanted a Windows phone but refrained from purchasing one because they were waiting for WP8 to release rather than buy a WP7. There were also probably a lot of WP7 users who were anxious for the upgrade as well. I'm anxious to see how well the phone fares over the next few months.

Percentages don't mean much if we don't know the actual number. It's a good sign that there's a 300% increase in sales, but it means little without having a point of reference. Also, like you said, are these repeat customers or new customers? They need new customers to keep the momentum. Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Just so you know, I work at one of the busiest wireless retail stores in the country and the 920 is selling!. We have sold out of about 10 shipments now and we continue getting more. I've never seen a windows phone sell as much as this phone has. Regular people and converts are buying which is weird. We've sold more 920s than any other in the last two years. I believe when he says there's 300% increase.

I asked for a 920 at Wal-Mart. The guy asks his supervisor and I can hear "Is that the Windows Phone? We don't have it." After I said thanks and walked away, I could hear the supervisor saying "Man, people have been asking about that phone all week!"

no it will not the only reason RT only has half storage is because of office the pro will be a full blown legacy compatible machine so i doubt the programs will take that much space. plus with the expandable memory your music and photos can be managed there and on the cloud so it should be plenty of memory

um... can i chime in? i took a look at my surface rt when i first got it and it was 20GB free and if u calculate 32GB in electronic world it's 29.8GB so in real world u only gave up 8~9GB for Windows+Office
it's a bit overblown...

maybe they have it priced there to avoid kneecapping other oems i see the surface as more of a status symbol but i'm pretty sure microsoft doesnt want to burn anyone else, whether the surface sells extremely well or modestly microsoft makes money on all fronts. Speaking in that regard i would assume it makes sense.

I agree with you on the price point. if it was set up between 699-799 for 64gb and 100+ for 128 gb, with the smart cover and the taxes still be under $1000 which makes a lot of sense than anything else..
I am not sure what the hell samsung is smooking, their product would havecontributed a better boost to the w8p sales. I am set for lumia, just waiting for my service provider to get them on board. Hate how they gave some exclusives to certain service providers.